It wasn't a good day for trade, while the markets were stable in the morning, pressure kept mounting in the second half. The Nifty closed at the lowest point of the day below 5850. A market that had reached close to 5970 just a couple of days back has given up about 120 points from the recent top. Whether it was a pullback to the overall up move that started last week or a U-turn will be seen over the next few days.

Several reasons have been cited for the market fall, banking that led the market down yesterday continued to put a lot of pressure on the index. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda (BOB) all were weak, even Kotak Mahindra Bank was weak. Auto is another weak part of the market, Maruti and Bajaj Auto. Metal stocks like Hindalco and Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) disappointed. Big oil and gas names like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) were weak as well.

Infosys has been supporting the market but for the last couple of days it has seen some aggressive profit taking. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) closed below Rs 200 today, a sort of mini breakdown. There were not many winners. A few defensives like Sun Pharma did well but otherwise most of the stocks performed badly.

In mid-caps there were not many gainers. The mid-cap index was down 1 percent. The breadth was not special. A handful of infrastructure stocks did well due to Supreme Court ruling on road widening, stocks like IRB Infrastructure, GMR Infrastructure and Lanco Infratech held out but otherwise not much news from the mid-cap side.

Sintex Industries and Voltas did reasonable trade. However, the list of losers is long. Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) continued their blood bath from yesterday. There was a lot of pressure on Titan Industries, Zee Entertainment, Pantaloon, Ashok Leyland. Today, it was a difficult day for the broader market as well. The close of the index at around 5850 has not been encouraging either, but longer term investors are still holding out hope.